With many young adult novels available for teenagers to read, “All the Bright Places” by Jennifer Niven certainly stands out as one of the most eye-opening for its teen audience.

The novel focuses on Violet Markey, a girl recovering from her sister’s death in a car accident, along with Theodore Finch, an outcast troubled with mental illnesses and a poor family life, all of which account for his misbehaviors and nickname “Freak”.

The pair meets under unlikely circumstances and decides to partner up on a geography project traveling across Indiana in search for landmarks and unique places to visit.

As the pair “wanders” together, they grow closer and learn the importance of having someone capable of understanding their hardships.

Violet is eventually able to move past her sister’s death with Finch’s companionship, but despite the new friendship, Finch finds it difficult to overcome the obstacles in his own mind. In this respect, I feel although Finch is unique because of his willingness to help and love Violet despite his own faults and parts of him in need of mending.

The novel explores the heavy topics of mental illnesses, suicide and death, which make it upsetting to read at times; however, Niven does a fantastic job explaining the themes to her audience and showing how certain events affect the victims as well as their loved ones.

Personally, I found the struggles the characters went through eye-opening and completely unique to those in other novels, giving me a better understanding of mental illnesses than I had before. 

The narration switched between Violet and Finch, showing both their perspectives. I enjoyed this aspect because it was interesting to see their personalities and how certain events directly influenced their lives.

A film adaptation began filming early spring of 2016 with actress Elle Fanning as Violet and Miguel Arteta directing. The script is written by Niven, so I hope it is accurate to the actual novel, both in what the characters say and how they act, as well as the story’s plot.

Overall, “All the Bright Places” is an interesting read and recommended to anyone looking for a more serious young adult novel.